Scum

"What are you talking about?" I asked the co-workers who were chatting near my cubicle.

The two women laughed. "Jerry* asked us a question, but he doesn't like our answer."

Jerry looked at me. "How many men would you say -- just in general, not specific ones you know -- are scum?"

I considered. "I dunno ... 5%?"

The other women giggled, while Jerry gestured to me. "See, there's an optimist."

"I said 50%," Michelle told me.

Lee offered, "65%."

I stared. "Really?"

"I'd say about the same for women," Michelle added. Lee's estimate on women was a bit lower, 50% or so.

"What about you, Jerry?" I asked him.

"I don't know. 30%? Hmmm. Maybe 2 in 10," he decided. "For both sexes."

*

I'm not sure if the wild variations in our estimates are because I'm generally kinder in evaluating people (it is awfully hard to make me feel like a person is actually bad or malign) or because they had a different idea of what was meant by scum. What about you -- how many people do you think are scum? And what qualifies a person as scum or not?

* No real names used here.